An astronaut in deep space finishes up some repairs to the parabolic antenna on his spacecraft’s exterior. Through his helmet’s microphone, he commands the ship’s controlling supercomputer, HAL 9000, “Open the pod bay doors, HAL.” A second later he gets a calm, cold response ...

Many writers have tried in vain to emulate the cool tech-lingo-driven prose of author William Gibson’s early cyberpunk fiction, and it’s easy to pick those budding science-fiction writers who cast themselves as his successor — fellow Canadian Joseph MacKinnon falls into this category. Cypulchre, ...

Novelist Toh EnJoe was awarded a special citation from the administrators of the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award for science fiction published in the United States, his publisher said Saturday. The English translation of EnJoe’s 2007 debut work “Self-Reference Engine,” published in the United ...

What if the long-term survival of the human race depended on thousands of Americans being relocated to a vast underground city, with giant TV screens broadcasting a desolate landscape outside and no one allowed to leave? SHIFT, by Hugh Howey. Arrow, 2013, 608 pp., ...

This is the third in Margaret Atwood’s science fiction trilogy, which started with “Oryx and Crake” and progressed to “The Year of the Flood.” The title of the third, MaddAddam, you will notice, is a palindrome. There is plenty of wordplay to come. MADDADDAM, ...

Frederik Pohl, who helped shape and popularize science fiction as an influential agent, editor and award-winning author, died Sept. 2 at a hospital near his home in Palatine, Illinois. He was 93. His death was confirmed by a granddaughter, author Emily Pohl-Weary. An entry ...